To Save A School Job
by In The Shadow 37
Summary: A young woman seeks out the Leverage team for help but she gets more than she bargins for.


Leverage

*****  
>As the cars drive by in the busy night, there stood a young woman outside of John McRory's place, she'd been standing there for quite sometime, afraid to go in, but time had been running out for her and the school she'd been running. The school would be closing soon if she didn't get the money she needed to run it, which had been promised to her by a friend, who'd recently passed away.<p>

Several months ago, her friend and mentor, Julius Strauss had promised to invest in the school and even had paperwork drawn up, but it didn't matter, because his business partner had found a way to bury it in court and hid any new will that mentioned her and the school. It seemed like an endless search but she wasn't going to give up at any cost!

There was nothing else she could do but come to this bar-the only man that could help her get what she needed was Nathan Ford. He was kind of a modern day Robin Hood – he'd steal from the rich to give to the poor. That's exactly what she needed. Leverage!

Taking a few deep breaths, the woman finally reached for the door, and pushed it open, entered inside. She stood at the bar, watching the patrons having their dinner or just there to have a drink, and finally sat on a stool. The file she'd been hold on to, set out in front of her. It was all the proof she had had to prove her case, but without Nathan Ford and his team, she could never help her students.

"Can I help you?" A deep voice asked had asked as he slung a white towel of his shoulder. The man behind the bar was in his late forties to early fifties. She carefully looked him over, realizing he was good looking enough with the dark clothes he was wearing. "Is there something I can help you with?" The man asked again.

The woman nodded, a little embarrassed. "Oh yes, sorry. I'm looking for Nathan Ford."

The man regarded her for a moment, debating on whether or not she was a potential client or someone else looking for him. Neither of them would surprise him. There had been a lot of people gunning for him for along time, this time would be no different. "I am Nathan Ford. What can I help you with?"

"The only kind you could give." The young woman had left that for him to figure it out.

Nathan did not say anything more, he just nodded for her to follow him. She hopped off the bar stool and followed him to the back. She heard clicking behind her, glancing over her shoulder to a pretty woman with dark hair, wearing a flowery dress, smiling and waving at her.

"All righty then!" Nathan said as we walked into the room, shutting door behind us.

The room was fairly small with a bar in the back and an exit off to the left. The younger of the women glanced at the exit, though she knew that wasn't an option, neither was getting a drink. She had to be clear about this whole thing if she was going to get what she was promised.

Nathan walked around the bar, grabbed a glass from the shelf underneath along with a bottle with an amber colored liquid inside, and poured himself a glass, drinking it down quickly. He poured himself another one and downed that one too!

"Nate!" The dark haired woman scolded in an English accent and turned to the young woman. " Excuse me...Where are my manners, I'm Sophie. What is it that we can help you with!" Sophia made her way to the table and sat down next to the younger woman.

"First off, my name is Sarah Miller." She started off quickly as she watched Nate take a seat next to Sophie. "It's a very complicated story." She passed the file over to him and watched him pick up to read the contents. "I will start from the beginning...a few years ago, I found myself down and out with no money, no home, sleeping on the street, but one day, I met this man outside of Third Street Coffee Shop that I sometime went to, hoping for a handout and some actually did gave a little something, but never enough to really live off of. But this kind man, he gave me more than I could have ever hoped for. It was something that changed my life completely." She sniffled a little.

"What happened next?" Sophie asked kindly as she placed her hands on Sarah's hand reassuringly.

"This man, Julius Strauss, walked out of the coffee shop one and he smiled at me and gave me a little money to get a place. I'm talking about a couple months rent for a real place, not some trashy motel that takes money by the week." Sarah saw a look that Sophie and Nathan exchanged, but the memory was a happy one, and she continued on. "You don't know how happy that made me but that wasn't the only thing he did. He gave me a teaching assistant job at a private school and even went so far as to help me get a college degree in teaching – amazing that man was!" Sarah began to tear up and Sophie reached into her clutch, pulling out a handkerchief, and handed it to the woman.

"Thank you!" Sarah sniffled and dabbed at her eyes. "I'm sorry. I promised myself I wasn't going to do this."

"It's okay..." Smiled Sophie. "Did you say Julius Strauss? The billionaire that recently passed away?" She questioned curiously as she glanced at Nathan. It was as if they'd known the man that Sarah had been describing.

"Yes...why? Did you know him?"

"We met up a few times," replied Nate. "He was a good man!" They'd met a few times during a couple of cons he and team had done.

Nodding, Sarah continued on, "To make a long story short, the school I work for is going under, and Julius had promised to invest in the school before and after he died, but he passed away before any of that could happen. His business partner will not even see me. I don't understand it, I was promised a certain amount and even have documentation, but I've tried to get the money, and it doesn't seem like I am going to get a dime and those kids are going to lose their school and their home." Sarah started crying again.

Sophie felt so bad for this young woman, that she wanted to help her get the money for those kids, to keep their school going. Whatever it took, she'd do it! "We'll help!" She blurted.

Nathan picked up a document, the one that Sarah had been referring to, and went on as if Sophia hadn't agreed to help. "This is the agreement?" He it up to prove his point.

"Yes, but the problem is, no judge will even look at it. Mr. Ford, I think that Marcus had the judges in his pocket. I don't have much time left with this, I need your help!" She couldn't press that anymore than she already had.

To play the devils advocate, Nathan continued on,, "Are you sure that isn't what Strauss had wanted, to back out of the deal."

Sarah scoffed at that. It was almost as though he was insulting her. "There is no in hell that Julius was ever like that. He was a kind man, he would never turn away anyone in need." She reached for the folder but Sophie stopped her.

"Wait.." Sophia said. "We just..."

It was taking all of her strength not to break down again and she looked pleadingly at Nathan and Sophie, "These kids are counting on me, Mr. Ford, will you help me?"

Quietly, Nathan closed the file and picked it up. "Yes! We will let you know what we find out!"

"Thank you! One condition though, I want to be there when you do!" Sarah almost all but ordered, but she could see that Nathan and Sophie wasn't going to allow that to happen. It was to dangerous!

"The safest thing for you to do is go back to your place and wait for us to call you!" Nathan had replied softly.

Sarah could tell he was worried about her and wanted to help, and she was feeling a little bit better about it, but that wasn't going to make her stay way. She was going to be in some how!

"I'm the only one that can get you into either his apartment or business." Sarah tried one more thing, but she knew that Nathan and his team could probably do anything to passed that, though she knew that murder was not on the list. She wouldn't do this if it were!

Nathan smiled reassuringly as he said, "Don't worry about that, we got it covered."

Even though Sarah knew that would be his answer, she finally relented. "He's my number..." She handed him her card. "You can reach me at my office if you need me." Until then, she'd be packing up her stuff to move to another place, wherever that may be. With a sigh, she hulled herself up from her chair. "Thank you, Mr. Ford. I really appreciate everything that you're doing."

"Call me Nate." Nate smiled at her. "We'll be in contact!" He flashed back to the last time he'd seen his child healthy and happy, and nodded, he knew he had to help these kids keep their school and to help this young woman keep her job! To many people were scammed out of much lesser things than this and it wasn't going to happen on his watch. He vowed that he would do what he could! Sophie could see he'd made that silent vow to himself and smiled at him.

Walking out of the room, Sarah suddenly decided she'd stay behind, and moved to the table near the door to hear the conversation, that had been beginning up again between the two. She was definitely curious as to what they were going to say.

"Got any ideas on how we can get the money? The Blind Bird con?" This was a rare con and hadn't been used in years. The con was simple, it was a woman who set her sites on a rich man and pretended to be a helpless blind woman.

Nate shook his head no. "No its going to be much harder than that – I know this guy – he will spot the con a mile away! We have to make sure that we don't make any mistakes and treat him as if you were taking me down! It's the only way."

It didn't exactly work the last time they did a con like that, but everything did eventually work out in the end. Wait? What? Nathan Ford new Marcus Jackson? How as that possible? Could he have seen this man in the paper? Met him at the rich parties that they sometimes had to go to in a scam? Maybe Nate and Marcus met on a con or were friends years ago. Sarah shook her head, she hadn't like that bit of news. Could she really trust Nate and his team?

"How do you know Marcus?" Sarah had hear Sophie ask. "He wasn't with Julius when I met him."

There was silence and then Nate had begun speaking once again. "Marcus and I go way back. We actually worked together, we were good friends, our families hung together, took vacations together, then he lost his family in a tragic accident and to cope, he turned to conning to make other people pay for what he was going through!"

"What a cold hearted bastard!"

"Yes!"

"It seemed like he was hesitating to take on my case, that's got to be the reason..." Sarah had whispered to herself and then heard them coming out of the room, and slid out of the seat and bumped into something big, something hard, and fell to the ground.

"I'm so sorry." A deep gravely voice said.

"No, no, it's my fault. I didn't look where I was going." Sarah hadn't even looked up or she would have notice the man in front her, tall, good looking, and muscular and the kind of hair you'd love to run your hands through. The kind of man that really got her going!

The man reached out to her and she took his strong hands, and he instantly pulled her to her feet, both feeling an instant shocked. She glanced up, face pink, saw his long hair, his dark eyes, and his face. He was definitely good looking! The heat had gone up ten degrees in the bar, but she was afraid to fan herself, it would give away what she was feeling. That was pure lust coursing through her, though she didn't know if he felt the same way. 

He did however, notice that there was something going on, but he was a good guy and wasn't going to put the moves on her at a bar, especially when he knocked her down.

The smile on his face was so sweet, though she knew that a guy his type, didn't show that side very often, and she was right. He was one to keep his feelings to himself, unless he's kicking someone elses ass. "Are you okay?" The hot guy had asked, though she wasn't exactly paying attention to what he said, she was definitely checking him out.

Realizing that he was waiting for an answer, Sarah replied, "Oh yes, I'm sorry. I'm fine."

"Eliot!" Nate's voice came up from behind Sarah and she glanced over her shoulder at him. "So, you met our new client?"

Eliot worked for Nate! That realization made things even more real. She'd get to be with him a lot if she had her way.

"I'm Sarah." They shook hands, neither of them spoke of what just happened, though another spark ran through them. She was sure he felt the same thing when she glanced up at him.

By no means was Sarah, Miss America, but she wasn't ugly either. She was average pretty, had long blonde hair, was of average height and weight, even had a casual style – jeans and a tee shirt – but for work, she went business casual. Sarah could see that Eliot's style was pretty much the same, that was something she liked a lot!

"Nice to meet you Sarah!" Eliot smiled at her, she smiled back.

Sophie noticed that exchanged between Eliot and Sarah but she remained quiet. She knew that it was going to be hard to keep them apart while they were working.

"Nice meet you all." Sarah nodded and headed out of the bar, Eliot watching her.

"Hey!" Sophie playfully hit Eliot in the arm.

"What?" Eliot grumbled. "What was that for?" He was beginning to regret that he taught her anything. 

"We got work to do." Nathan disappearing in the backroom. He knew what was going on but didn't say anything. It was up to Eliot keep his head in the game!

Three walked into the apartment a few minutes later and Nate pulled his phone out, and dialed a number quickly. "Get over here!" He shut the phone and stuffed it his pocket.

Several minutes later, Hardison walked into the apartment, he didn't look to happy about being interrupted. "How can you...This better had better be good, I was just..." 

"Another time," Nate interrupted him. "I want any information you can find on Julius Strauss, Marcus Jackson, and Sarah Miller. I need to know everything." Even though Nate knew a little about Julius and Marcus, he wanted to know what had been going on for the last few years and to know if Sarah Miller was on the up and up. His gut said yes but he had to be sure. He didn't want to send his team out on a wild goose chase!

Hardison nodded and went right over to the computer, getting right to work. Eliot followed, sitting next to Hardison at the consul. Nate and Sophie went to the kitchen, sitting at the table.

"I think we need to keep an eye on Sarah..." Sophie finally voiced her concern, though she knew that Eliot would never let anything happen to Sarah or any of them, but she'd get hurt nevertheless with their line of work. They couldn't allow themselves to get close enough to anyone but their group. It was safest that way.

"That's the least of our problems right now, Sophie." Nathan ran a hand through his curly dark hair as he stared off in space. He was thinking about the next step in the plan and take down his old friend.

"Hey Nate..." Hardison had said, glancing over at Sophie and Nathan. "I think you should take a look at this." Nathan and Sophie stood up and headed toward the counsel. "Jackson has been embezzling funds from Strauss Pharmaceutical for several years, amongst other things and never was caught.

Nathan walked over to the big screen to take a closer look, reading each document and newspaper article he could see. "It looks like he'd been tried a number of times..."

"Yeah, this guy got off," Hardison commented.

"Sounds like the judge was in his pocket," Eliot said a moment later. He didn't like it one bit.

"I think you might be right about that," observed Nate as he turned to glance at his team. "He had the same judge in each case."

"This guy is some piece of work," Sophie said after a moment. "It will be my pleasure to help take him down."

Turning towards the big screen once again, Nate looked at Jackson's picture, wondering when his old friend gotten so far out of control. The way it was heading, Nate's gut told him that this guy's agenda's included murder, and the strange thing about it, he wouldn't be surprise at all. That was something that Nate hoped would never happen, but he promised himself he wouldn't let it get that far.

A few minutes passed in silence, the door opened, and in walked Parker. She slammed the door behind her and everyone turned to glance at her and she stopped, wondering why they were staring. "What?" Parker looked at each one. "What did I do?" Then she thought maybe she had something wrong with her hair or something in her teeth, but Nate gave her a look that said not now.

"What'd you find out, Parker?" Nate asked curiously. He had called her on their way up from the meeting.

"I followed Sarah like you said, Nate, and she is definitely on the up and up. She went to a boarding school just out of town. I did see a notice that the place was to be torn down and that all residence to vacate in a few days." Parker made her way over to the counsel and sat next to Hardison.

Nate's gut was telling him there was more to it than that. "Was there anything else you can remember?"

"Umm..." Parker bit her lip in thought. "I think there was something about the company that owned the land." She flashed back to the school to remember what she'd seen. "Brown Acquisitions."

"Brown?" Nate quickly asked. "Brown? Are you sure?" That was name was resonating in his mind.

"What is it?" Sophie asked. She knew that Nate had found something that they weren't getting at the moment.

"Brown was Marcus' wife's maiden name and I believe her father had owned a company of the same name - Marcus had taken it over after Brown died."

Hardison nodded, he was on the same thought as Nate. "I think you're on to something." Hardison went through each thing he'd found until he'd found demo permit for the school and Marcus had signed it and put it on the big screen for everyone to view.

"I just don't understand how one person could do so much and still get away with it." Sophie shook her head in disbelief.

"Money will make people do strange things..." Nate walked over to his team. "Okay...We're gonna need need to bury that injunction and find out what we can find on the judge." Nate paused a moment in thought. "Let's go, we're going to steal a courthouse!"

*****  
>Nate walked into the courthouse like he owned it, his team not far behind, looking inconspicuous. At first glance, it didn't look like they knew each other, just people heading to a court date.<p>

"Parker...Hardison," Nate spoke as if he were speaking on a cell phone ear piece. "I want you two to find Judge Lei's office. See what you can find."

Hardison and Parker head off toward the elevators, while Nate and Sophie head into the clerks office, and Eliot stood out in the court yard to keep an eye on things.

"Hi ya." Nate said as he entered into the office, chewing gum. "I'm Detective Smyth and this is my partner Detective Cline, we're with Internal Affairs." He flashed his badge. "I'm gonna need anything you have a case file 55544ARWQ." He just made that up as he went along.

The young woman looked at him unsure. "Um, let me see." She turned to her computer and typed something in. "Hmm, it looks like its not in our system but it may be one of the older files that haven't been added to our system. I can have that to you later today."

"I'm sorry," Sophie stepped forward. "We need that today. Our case file is missing a key piece of information that we're hoping would be in that file. So if you could just run along and find that for us, we could close our case."

"Okay..." The young woman pushed away from her chair. "Sure thing..." She walked around the counter, and out of the office.

"Let's see what we can find..." Nate and Sophie walked around the counter and over to the desk.

Hardison and Parker found the judges office. It looked dark and quiet, much to their relief. They looked both ways, up and down the hallway, to make sure it was clear. To their surprise, the door didn't have an electronic lock, it was old school. It was a running theme through the old building.

Pulling out a black case from her back pocket, Parked removed a few of her tools, and handed the case to Hardison, and she proceeded to jimmy the lock. It took no time at all." There!" She smirked.

"Let's just get inside." Hardison opened the door and together they went in. He shut the door behind him.

The room was relatively small. It was big enough for a fish tank on the left of the door, three seats and a table to the right and straight a head, a desk. There were some paintings of the outdoors on the walls. Parker walked over to the fish, picked up the food that sat on the top, opened it up, and poured a little bit in, and watched the fish eat. It seemed it was the highlight of her day. Hardison rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"What?" Parker asked curiously.

"Never mind!" Hardison turned to observe the tiny room. "No file cabinets but there is a computer. The files must be on it." He moved over to the desk and sat down and powered up the computer, waiting for the old thing to wheeze to life. "Finally!" He took a deep breath, there were many things he could hack, and this was one of them, piece of cake, he thought. But after a few minutes of searching, he found nothing. "Of course!" He shook his head, shut the old computer off and stood up, pushing the chair back where he found it. "I can't believe she went in without me!" He headed towards the office.

The office was bigger and had a better view of the park. To the right was a conference area and to the left was a small seating area and straight a head a large desk and two chairs sat in front of it. The dark wood on the walls and shelves made the room appear darker, save for the little desk lamp that Parker had turned on.

"Looks like Lei was a naughty, naughty, little boy!" Parker grinned as she looked up at Hardison and then glanced at the picture of Lei's family on his desk and suddenly it wasn't so funny.

"Ooooh, let me see!" Hardison walked around the desk and saw a picture of the judge in a compromising position with a senator. "Is that Senator Harrison Faulkerson?" He seemed surprised.

"Yep!"

"That explains a lot!" Hardison laughed. "The judge is being blackmailed by Jackson."

"Nate..." Parker said into her ear piece. "You're never gonna believe this?"

"What?" She could hear him reply.

"The judge is having an affair with Faulkerson and there's pics to prove it."

"Hmmm!" Nate didn't know exactly what to say. "What else did you two find?"

"We'll let you know in a few..." Hardison said as Parker stood up and he took the seat. She went looking through the books and magazines, and whatever else she could look through, while Hardison started hacking through the judges computer.

A few minutes, Hardison mumbled something that Parker couldn't understand and she made her way back over to him. "What is it?" She wondered curiously..

"A large bank transfer was made a few days ago to a flower place."

"A flower place?" Parker looked at the computer screen.

"Wait..." Hardison remembered something from earlier when he was searching for information. "Lilly Lane is a company owned by Brown Acquisition."

"That makes sense."

"What does?" Nate had said, while he listened in.

"The judge made a large transfer to a flower shop owned by Brown." Hardison saved all the information he'd found on his san disk. They would decipher it all later.

"Hey look at this..." Parker spotted a very ornate black and white invitation to a party given by Marcus Jackson.

"So the plot thickens!" Eliot had said over the ear comm. He'd been listening in the whole time, though he remained quiet.

"Looks like we're heading to a party!" Sophie said excitedly.

***  
>Later that evening, Parker, Eliot and Sophie walked into Jackson's apartment, showing a custom, one of of a kind, invite that Hardison had made in five minutes, while he and Nate remained in the van, parked outside the building where Marcus lived. Everyone was dressed in black white, including Parker, Sophie, and Eliot.<p>

The apartment was blindly white with modern furniture, but it had a great view of the city night scape.

"Mingle, shall well..." Sophie checked out her one-shouldered black dress, and proceeded into the party.

Parker wore a simple black dress and Eliot was in a dark suit and his hair was pulled back into a pony tail.

As they mingled, they kept their eye on Jackson, he was greeting each and everyone. Sophie realized he was wearing Armani. She spotted that a mile away, she'd hustled a few millionaires who wore that designer.

Jackson headed towards Judge Lei, who was talking with the mayor. Sophie and Eliot made their way towards each other, Parker, not long after that, and overheard the conversation, it looked as though it was going to be a heated argument.

"If this gets out," Judge Lei continued softly, "I'm ruined." He looked around, thankfully, no one was paying attention, or so he thought.

"You should have thought about that before you started screwing the Senator," sneered Jackson. "Just keep paying me and no one will find out!" He put his arm around the judges' shoulder and laughed as though the man had said the funniest thing in the world, but the judge had not laughed.

"How did you find out anyway?" Judge asked curiously.

"Why would I give away all my secrets?" Jackson smiled. He had found out from a from who worked on the senator's campaign.

"Did you get all that?" Sophie walked away casually.

"All of it!" Nate replied in her ear.

They walked over to the hors d'oeuvres table, grabbed a plate, and placing what looked good on their plate, though Parker casually set hers down and disappeared down the hallway. She went through the first door, quickly looked around that, then the next and the next, until she came to Jackson's bedroom. It was pretty much the same décor as the rest of the apartment – white with modern furniture.

Parker peeked in quickly, hurried in, and shut the door. She went to the dressers, looked through each one, then she went into to closet, though there was nothing there in any of them. So she tried the pictures on the walls though no luck either. "Hmm!" She noticed something on the floor. It looked a little uneven, but it wasn't that noticeable, only someone in her trade would notice it. "Jackpot!" She got to the floor, removed the rug, and stared at the floor momentarily, until she figured out where the release latch was – the was a button on the bottom of the dresser door that just looked out of sorts and pushed it. The floor opened up and there was a safe there. "Found something..." It was an old school safe and didn't take her long to open it up. "A letter?" She picked it up. It read for Sarah.

Curious, Parker opened it up to read it. "To whom it may concern: If you're reading this now, then I must be dead. I died at the hands of Marcus Jackson, my business partner. He'd been stealing a rare form of cancer, the cancer I had been diagnosed with, and he'd been injecting it into to me. It was to late when I found out what he was doing. He even made sure that I made him the executor of the estate and leave everything to him. But with the help of my attorney, I secretly made video of my intentions. It is in a safe place with Sarah. Sincerely, Julius Strauss." Parker paused in thought. "Wait, if she had it the whole time," She said to Nate, "Why didn't she tell us? Why go through all this?"

"She didn't know." Nate said quickly. "Maybe its not Sarah herself that has it, but the school!"

Parker looked up when she heard talking in the hallway. She quickly stuffed the letter back in the envelope and stuffed it in her bra, and peeked out in the hallway, carefully. She saw Marcus and some big guys head into the office across the hallway. When the door closed, she closed the door. "Nate, Marcus and his gooneys are in the office across the hallway. I'm gonna go see what they're talking about."

"Careful!"

"Right." Parker softly opened the door and walked across the hallway, and opened the office door slightly to listen in.

"That teacher friend of Mr. Strauss is in the building!" Big brute 2 said.

"What?" bellowed Marcus.

"Only just heard about it a few minutes ago. Got it in a text from Archie, the old guy geezer downstairs in the lobby," big brute replied. "

Marcus was not happy about that at all. The girl was a thorn in his side ever since Julius took her under his wing. Marcus would like nothing more than to get rid of her for good. "Take care of her at once. I don't care how you do it. JUST DO IT!"

"Nate, we have a problem." Parker whispered. "Sarah is here and she's in trouble."

Marcus heard Parker whispering out in the hallway. "Who's there?"

"Uh, oh, busted."

Big brute opened the door and found Parker standing there, a little embarrassed. "What are you doing here?"

"This isn't the bathroom?"

"No! First door on your right!" Big brute pointed.

"Thank you! I am so sorry." Parker headed for the bathroom and went in. She turned back around and peeked into the hallway and glanced down the hall. "All clear." She whispered.

"Get her out of there!" Nate ordered over the comm.

"Heading that way." Parker rushed out of the hallway and over to Sophie and Eliot, who were heading out the door with Sarah. Parker glanced over her shoulder and see the big guys she'd seen in the office. "Let's get out of here. They're coming!"

Sarah stopped and pulled away from Eliot, though neither of which liked the other of being away from each other, especially when danger loomed, but Sarah needed to find out why Marcus was doing this to her, to all of her students. How could one man be so cruel? "I'm not going anywhere. I need to..."

Pulling her close to him, Eliot cupped her face in his hands, and looked deep into her eyes, saying, "I know how important this is to you, but now is not the time." He glanced up at the big guys coming at them. "We got to go now!" He released her and took his hands in his.

"We've got this..." Parker said to Sarah in a reassuring tone. "Now come on!"

They rushed out into the hallway, but to their surprise, there were two more big guys waiting for them. Eliot pushed Sarah behind him, Parker and Sophie stood by Sarah, protecting her as best as they could, but the two big guys from inside the apartment, grabbed them, leaving Sarah unprotected. Eliot stepped forward and started fighting with one of them. It only took a moment for Eliot to incapacitate the guy and turn to the one who had Sophie, but she seemed to have gotten out of the hold and he punched the guy in the face, knocking him out.

For big guys, they sure didn't know how to fight one on one, Eliot noted to himself. He turned toward the one who had Parker and she'd stepped down on the guys foot and he released her, long enough for Eliot to give him a kick to the head.

"Eliot!" Sarah cried out.

Eliot, Parker, and Sophie all turned to find that the one remaining guy holding Sarah with a knife. Eliot glanced at Sarah, she was crying and silently wishing that she was in Eliot's arms in some private place just the too of him. He'd been thinking the very same thing when he looked into her eyes.

"Let her go!" Eliot held his hands up in supplication. He tried to walk closer but the guy dug the knife into her side and that made him stop. "This doesn't have be like this." He thought maybe he could try to reason with the guy, but he knew deep down, this guy wasn't the reasoning type. "No one has to get hurt."

"Got her boss!" The big guy said. "Right!"

Sarah could hear every word through the comm and whispered, "NO!" She felt the knife go into her and turn. Oh the pain was more than she ever imagined and screamed. The guy dropped her to the floor and ran. Blood. There was so much blood coming out of her fast. It was every where. Her breath short and fast and her heart rate sped up faster, her body trying to fight to stay alive. She reached out to Eliot!

He was right there at her side, holding her.

"I'm here!" Eliot ran a head through her hair. "It's okay!" He quickly removed his jacket, rolled it up, and held it to the wound. He pulled it back momentarily and saw just how bad it was. He'd seen much worse in the wore, but never anyone that he cared about, and it was tearing him up. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." Sarah weakly smiled up at him.

Eliot placed the jacket back on the wound.

"Nate!" Sophie called.

"Heard everything." Nate said through the comm. "Get her out of there!"

"What about the guy that stabbed Sarah?" Parker questioned as she closed the door to the apartment, thankful that no one saw the mealy.

"Don't worry about him. Hardison is taking care of him." Nate said in their ear pieces. "Ambulance is waiting."

Eliot picked up Sarah in his eyes and she held onto him. "We're on our way!"

They headed out.

***  
>The guy who'd stabbed Sarah ran out of the building and down the street and suddenly a door of a Mercedes opened up and the guy smacked right into it and fell back on the ground. His head thumped hard on the cement, knocking him out. "That's what I'm talking about!" Hardison stepped out of the car smiling and as he shut the door. To his surprise, the idiot had gone and left the knife in his hand. "What is this?" He knelt down to look at it, pulled out an evidence bag and gloves, put the gloves on and picked up the knife, stuffing it in the bag.<p>

An ambulance pulled up by the front door when Eliot, Sarah, Parker, and Sophie exited the building. The cops pulled up not long after and it was Hardison's cue to handcuff the big oaf laid out on the ground. He quickly pulled the cuffs out of his back pocket and handcuffed him and hulled up to his feet. The guy was just a bit groggy, which was perfect because the idiot didn't know what the hell was going on. Hardison padded him down and it was evident that the guy didn't have anything else on him. Just for show!

"Check his ears. He has a comm." Nate said into Hardison's ear.

Hardison tipped the guys head and looked into the ear. "Well, well, what do we have here?" He pulled he comm piece of his hear. He stuffed the piece into another evidence bag.

"What is going on?" The guy asked, lethargic.

"You're being arrested for attempted murder."

The guy glanced at Hardison and shook his head. "I didn't attempt nothing!"

As long as the guy thought he was being arrested, Hardison decided to read his rights to him. There was no way he was letting him get off for what he did. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. Do you understand these rights as they have been read to you?"

The big guy nodded and Hardison pushed him off toward the cop car nearby, opened the door, and stuffed him in the backseat. He walked over to the cop who was talking to Sophie and Parker. "Ma'am." He tipped his head at Sophie and then at Parker. "Ma'am. Excuse us."

"Sure thing detective." Sophie had smiled and she and Parker walked away.

Hardison turned toward he cop, saying, "I'm detective Johnson." He flashed his badge. "I apprehended the suspect and collected any evidence on his persons." He held up the bags. "I think this may lead you back to Marcus Jackson."

"How do you come to that conclusion?" The office asked. He was a little weary of Hardison even though he showed his badge.

The ambulance drove away and Hardison watched until it was gone. "I've been working undercover some time and have plenty of evidence to support the claim."

Just then Nate appeared out of nowhere with a large file in his hand and handed it over to the police officer and he quickly leafed through each item. It was all incriminating. He flashed his badge. "Officer Simmons." Nate nodded. "Jackson and I go way back and I've been tracking him since for ever. It's all in there!"

"We were on our way to arrest Jackson till the stabbing." Hardison kept the charade going.

"I got the warrant right here." Nate looked in his jacket pocket and produced a warrant.

"I'm gonna have to check this out..." The office said and went back to his car.

It took a long time for them the officer to check out the warrant and Hardison started to feel a little nervous. "Think it'll fly?" He asked.

"It should. I found it amongst the information you got from the judge. It was just hidden with other documents." Nate had said. "He was wanted in armed robbery in Virginia as well as Texas and Wyoming!"

"Damn! That guy was busy!" Hardison was surprised.

Nate just nodded. He was thankful that things were almost over, but if Sarah didn't make it, there would be nothing that he could do for those children and everything would be for naught!

"I'm gonna head on to the hospital. Let me know when everything is wrapped up here!"

Hardison nodded and Nate walked over to the Mercedes that Hardison had been in no long ago, got into the drivers side, started the car, and drove away. It didn't take long for him to reach the hospital. It took about fifteen minutes to get there and park. He headed inside and went to the nurses station. "Hi, I'm looking for Sarah Miller?"

The nurse started typing on her computer and when she was finished, she glanced up at Nate, "She's in surgery now. You can wait in the waiting room along with that man over there." She pointed and Nate turned to see Eliot pacing back and forth.

"Thank you! I'd like to take care of any medical bills that she may incur while she's in the hospital. I'd also like for her to have a private room."

"Billing is over there to the right." She pointed down the hall.

"Thank you!" Nate headed down to the hallway and made a right. He stood in front of the billing office, opened the door, and entered.

While Nate was handling the business, Eliot paced back and forth. He was worried and he blamed himself for allowing Sarah to get in this mess. If he'd just made sure that she was safely at home, none of this would happening. She was just to stubborn for her own good, he thought! Like he was. He finally sat down, realizing it was going to be awhile before she was out.

It seemed like an eternity when the doctor finally came over to Eliot, who'd fallen asleep waiting. The doctor sat down in front of him and gently woke the man up.

"Mr. Spencer?"

Eliot slowly woke up and saw the doctor sitting before him. His heart caught in his throat, he was thinking the worst had happened. "What is it?" He whispered.

"It was touch go there for awhile, but Ms. Miller is going to be fine. She'll be up in her room in an hour or so."

That was a total relief to hear that she was going to be fine. Eliot smiled. "Thank you, doctor!"

The doctor nodded left just as Nate was coming out of the business office. He looked happy, he'd already hear the news.

A few hours later, Sarah had slowly opened her eyes, the first thing she'd seen was Eliot at the end of the bed watching her. She smiled at him, glad that he was the first thing she'd seen.

"You're gonna be okay!" He told her.

"Good news," Nate had begun. "Everything that we've been working for, is over. We've got the original will and you stand to inherit everything! You're a wealthy woman, Sarah!"

"All those kids will have a school to come back to!" Sophie walked up along side of the bed.

"Thank you! Thank you! I am so grateful to you all!" Sarah yawned. She was still weak and tired. "I am sorry for not listening to you."

"You're okay, that's what matters!" Eliot said to her. "Go back to sleep."

"If you need anything," Parker told her, "we'll be right be here for you!"

"Thank you!" Sarah slowly closed her eyes, sleep claiming her. It was the worst day of her life but it was also the best. Now the school was going to be opened again and no one could take that away from her or the students. She would always be grateful to team that helped her and hope that maybe they could be friends in the end.

The End


End file.
